What Might P4P in Addiction Treatment Look Like?

The October issue of Fast Company reports on a hospital network that offers fixed price coronary artery bypass (CABG) surgery at a fixed price with a 90-day "any complications and your surgery is free."

One aspect of their model: a standardized checklist of 40 steps from pre-surgery through recovery that medical personnel must sign off on. (Doctors can elect to skip a step, but they must document that they're skipping the step.)

Another aspect of the model: the price charged includes a fraction of the expected costs of follow-up care usually associated with complications. If a surgery usually costs $50,000 and follow-up procedures might cost $10,000, a fraction of that $10,000 is built into the new list price for the surgery for all patients (say, $50,800).

Some questions to think about:

• What might such a model look like for adolescent substance abuse treatment?
  
• How is substance abuse treatment different from surgery?
  
• Are those differences barriers to such a strategy?
  
• Could some differences enhance the utility of this model for substance abuse services?
  
• How is the checklist different from procedures and standards set by accrediting organizations?

Sustaining Community Programs

SAMHSA has published: Sustaining Grassroots Community-Based Prorgrams: A Toolkit for Community- and Faith-Based Service Providers. The report highlights strategies for:

• organizational assessment and readiness
  
• effective marketing
  
• financial management
  
• sustainability (fund development and fund raising)
  
• results-oriented evaluation.

Reminder: CANS Conference 9/28-9/30

The 5th Annual National Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) Conference will be September 28th through September 30th, 2008 at the Hilton Downtown Nashville.

Follow these links for more info: Registration, Agenda.

Topics include:

• Total Clinical Outcomes Management: A framework for managing services for Programs, Agencies, and Systems
  
• Training and Implementation Issues, including a hands on demonstration of web-based training and certification approaches
  
• Decision Support Applications for intensity of services and level of care
  
• Measuring and Managing Outcomes: The role of structured assessment in performance contracting
  
• Quality improvement applications
  
• System Management Strategies including geo mapping approaches to support service matching
  
• Strategies for incorporating youth and families in the planning process
  
• Using the CANS to Support Trauma-Informed Care
  
• Adult Needs and Strengths (ANSA).